La stratégie de la poussette

Thomas loves his girlfriend Marie, but she dumps him because he's not mature enough and she feels their relationship isn't going anywhere. When a convoluted (and barely explained) string of events leads to Thomas being stuck with having to take care of a baby, he somehow decides that it would be a good idea to try and convince Marie that he changed by pretending that he's the father. Obviously he gets caught in his own web of lies, and obviously he gradually comes to truly care for the baby and grows as a result, with a series of obvious and predictable hi-jinx and plenty of poop-jokes to go around leading up to the obvious happy ending.

I caught La stratégie de la poussette by chance on a flight from Paris; otherwise I never would have heard of it. It's a nice reminder of the screening process that doesn't apply to American cinema, and therefore makes it seem like European film is inherently better than American one simply because the truly bad or bland movies never make it out of their countries of origin. La stratégie de la poussette is the blandest and most predictable of rom-coms, one that could have been made in the 80's as easily as in 2012, and every joke is a painful cliché, even if Raphaël Personnaz is charismatic enough to make a couple of them work. There's some inspiration in the first and last scenes, but everything in-between would have felt right at home in an episode of Baby Daddy or in Three Men and a Baby (whether it's the French or American version). A sub-par, cheesy and outdated chick flick that will never make it outside of France, and has no right to.